1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic steering system for a vehicle for garaging the vehicle without recourse to a steering by a driver.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such automatic steering systems for vehicles are already known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 3-74256 and 4-55168. The automatic steering systems for vehicles utilize an actuator for a conventionally well-known power steering device, and are designed so that back parking and linear parking are automatically controlled by controlling the actuator based on the relationship between a previously stored distance of movement of the vehicle and a steering angle. There is also an automatic steering system which is already known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-278477 and which is designed, so that a warning is provided if an obstacle is detected within a presumed locus of movement of the subject vehicle during a parking operation provided by a driver.
If a warning device for emitting a warning by detecting an obstacle is combined with the automatic steering system for the vehicle, it is possible to further reliably carry out the automatic parking. In the warning device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-278477, however, the warning is emitted immediately before contact of the vehicle with the object and hence, there is a possibility that the operation for keeping the vehicle from contacting the obstacle is not in time. In addition, if the warning is emitted during automatic parking, the parking operation is conducted again from the beginning, resulting in a troublesome operation.
The above known automatic steering system also suffers from the problem that the vehicle is moved from a start position through a previously stored locus of movement to a parking position and hence, if the start position is deviated, the parking position is also deviated. Additionally, the surrounding situation around the parking position (for example, the positions of other vehicles parked on left and right opposite sides and the like) is not taken into consideration and hence, a final parking position may deviate in some cases from an appropriate parking position depending upon the surrounding situation.